How to Inflate a Bicycle Tire

Video Transcript

" Hi! This is Mike on behalf of expertvillage.com. For more information about bicycle maintenance please visit Prairie Path Cycles in Winfield, Illinois or visit our website at www.prairiepathcycles.com. In this clip I’m going to show you how to properly inflate your tire and how to check it for a wear. Now when you are checking your tire for a wear you are going to be wanting to check a couple of things. I have got in this wheel right here is a mountain bike so if you notice the knobs on your tire are starting to get real low or there are pieces in the middle that are real flat and it looks like the rubber starting to go bad then you want to replace your tire. Also once your tire gets pretty old it is going to start to get what is known as a dry rot and that’s basically just from the tire not getting a lot of use and you will notice cracks on the sidewall once it starts to get real old. So when you do notice that it will be a lot easier for you to get a flat, so I would recommend changing them. And then when you are filling up your tire you are going to want to inflate it to a certain PSI and they way you will know this is marked on the side of the tire. Like this tire here, it states 40-65 PSI. So you want to make sure you follow the recommendations on your tire itself and never go below 40 but sometimes you can go above the recommended high value of PSI so if this one is recommended as 65. You can go a little bit higher may be fill it a 75 or 80 but if you do want to play it safe always go by what the recommended PSI value is on the side of your tire."